Sources: The US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), the Dartmouth Health Atlas, the U.S. Census Bureau The 2012 County Health Rankings report, the third annual, is out today and measures each of the 3,005 counties in the U.S. The report, which draws on data from the CDC, the Dartmouth Health Atlas, the U.S. [...]
Sources: The US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), the Dartmouth Health Atlas, the U.S. Census Bureau The 2012 County Health Rankings report, the third annual, is out today and measures each of the 3,005 counties in the U.S. The report, which draws on data from the CDC, the Dartmouth Health Atlas, the U.S. [...]
Sources: Harvard School of Public Health, Annals of Internal Medicine online, BBC Health News Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) research suggests that routine mammography screening, the current essential tool in detecting early breast cancers, may lead to a significant amount of overdiagnosis of disease that would otherwise have proved harmless. The researchers analyzed data from [...]
Source: BBC Health Early clinical trials of a manufactured hepatitis C vaccine has shown what researchers at Oxford Univesity are calling "promising" results. The study involved only 41 patients and was complicated by the fact that the virus alters its appearance. Designing a vaccine has been difficult as the virus changes its appearance, making it hard to [...]
Sources: The Lancet; US Preventivie Serivices Task Force; WebMD It appears that way. It is largely accepted that 90% of all cervical cancers are caused by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Accordingly, a team of Dutch researchers set out to determine whether detecting the cause of the majority of cervical cancers could out-predict the traditional test. 45,000 [...]
Source: Chicago's Northwestern University News Center; www.northwestern.edu In what has been termed the "first study in which women are actually asked questions," a staggering 36% of postmenopausal women who are treated for estrogen-sensitive breast cancer quit using drugs that help prevent the disease from recurring. Universally the reason is because of side effects of the medication, [...]
Source: NY Daily News; Eli Lilly & Co. According to Audits conducted on Nursing Home Facilities in the United States, elderly patients with dementia are too often prescribed anti-psychotic drugs to calm disruptive behavior. The Senate Committe on Aging is apparently having hearings on this issue. Health and Human Services Inspector General, Daniel Levinson has [...]
Sources: BBC Health News; Dr. Foster Intelligence Hospital Guide 2001-2011; Journal of the American Medical Association A British research company, Dr. Foster Intelligence, has studied hospitals in the UK from 2001 to 2011 and noticed that there was a "worrying" 10% spike in deaths compared with weekdays across 147 British Hospitals. The researchers concluded that some of those [...]
Source: US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) The US FDA has revoked it's prior approval of Avastin for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. Avastin came onto the market as being a meidication with great promise for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg stated plainly in her Decision of the Commissioner, that, "[T]there is [...]
Source: www.merk.com WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J., Nov. 22, 2011 - Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced it has reached a resolution with federal and state authorities regarding a previously disclosed investigation concerning Vioxx. Merck voluntarily withdrew Vioxx from the market in September 2004. The company previously recorded a charge [...]